Incredible Stories of the Prophets, Vagabonds, Fortune-Tellers, Hermits, Lords, and Poets Who Shaped New England New England has been a lot of things--an economic hub, a cultural center, a sports mecca--but it is also home to many of the strangest individuals in America. Wicked Weird Wily Yankees explores and celebrates the eccentric personalities who have left their mark in a way no other book has before. Some folks are known, others not so much, but the motley cast of characters that emerges from these pages represents a fascinating cross-section of New England's most peculiar denizens. Look inside to find -Tales of the Leather Man and the Old Darned Man, who both spent years crisscrossing the highways and byways of the northeast, their origins and motivation to remain forever unknown. -The magnificent homes of William Gillette and Madame Sherri, famed socialites who constructed enormous castles in the New England countryside. -William Sheldon's apocalyptic prophecies and wild claim